Carry On Barbara

Samantha Spiro and Jaime Winstone play national treasure Barbara Windsor in a colourful new biographical drama.

- Caren Clark

Her roles in the Carry On films and EastEnders have made Barbara Windsor part of the fabric of British life, but is there more to the much-loved actress than her saucy giggles and playing the Queen Vic’s pint-sized publican Peggy Mitchell?

This week, BBC1’s fascinating biopic Babs reveals the Londoner’s childhood and early work as a serious theatre actress, as well the crucial decisions she made between her personal and professional lives.

The moving one-off drama, penned by former EastEnders writer Tony Jordan, is set in 1993, when Windsor was in her fifties and performing in an end-of-the-pier show. She’s at a low ebb and, after a matinee, she starts to reminisce about the people and events that have shaped her life and career from 1943 to 1993.